So What and Now What? The Power of Deliberate Pricing Leadership in Professional Services

In professional services, massive value destruction lurks in plain sight, hidden behind complex excuses and leadership inaction in pricing. What prevents organizations from capturing millions in potential value by taking immediate, ownership-driven actions?

Is it time to start turning the crank?

Michael Chen (not his real name), a pricing consultant, remembers the exact moment that changed his perspective on leadership forever. During a routine sales review at his consumer durables client, the Chief Sales Officer insisted, "Over my dead body would my team ever discount beyond 25%."

Then Michael shared his analysis. The data revealed systematic "promotion stacking" across the sales organization, with some customers receiving combined discounts approaching 50%. The CSO's face fell as he absorbed the numbers.

"Get me some body bags," he said, only half-joking. Then he did something that shocked everyone in the room: He stopped the meeting. Not to schedule a follow-up discussion. Not to commission deeper analysis. Not to form a task force. He stopped it to make phone calls - right then - to halt a practice he knew was destroying value.

"The room went silent," Chen told me from his Charlotte office. "Here was someone finally doing what we all knew needed to be done - actually stopping obvious value destruction rather than studying it to death."

Within 30 days, that single decision had recovered $12 million in revenue. Within 90 days, as systematic enforcement took hold, the number approached $30 million. No transformation project. No new systems. No complex analysis. Just a leader finally taking ownership with deliberate intent.

The Professional Services Parallel

Sarah Martinez (not her real name) recognized the pattern immediately when I shared Chen's story. As managing partner of her firm's technology practice, she'd watched similar value destruction happen daily.

"We had partners labeling 30% of their clients as 'strategic investments,' each consuming an average of $250,000 in unbilled time annually," she told me. "That's $15 million in value leakage from just one practice. Everyone knew it was happening. Everyone complained about it. But no one had simply said: 'This stops now.'"

The parallels were striking:

• Known problems hiding in plain sight

• Clear value destruction that could be stopped immediately

• Leaders hesitating to take ownership of roles they already held

• Simple decisions creating millions in value

The Quick Money Truth

This reveals something crucial about professional services pricing: The fastest path to value often isn't through transformation projects or complex analyses. It's through leaders finally taking ownership of responsibilities they've always had.

Consider these immediate opportunities:

• Undocumented Strategic Investments

  • Before: 30% of clients labeled "strategic investment"

  • Average investment per client: $250K in unbilled time

  • Total annual value leakage: $15M

  • Action: Required documented client acknowledgment

  • Result: 70% of "strategic" clients couldn't justify the investment

  • Value capture: $10M in first year

• Practice-level Pricing Exceptions

  • Before: 15 practices setting rates independently

  • Price variability: 40% for similar services

  • Action: Central pricing authority with clear governance

  • Result: Price variability reduced to 15%

  • Value capture: $25M in first year

• Unacknowledged Client Investments

  • Before: Average 200 hours of unbilled partner time per "strategic" client

  • Total annual investment: $20M

  • Action: Required client sign-off on investment value

  • Result: 65% reduction in unbilled time

  • Value capture: $13M in first year

The False Complexity Trap

"But we need better systems first." "We need market data before we can act." "We need stakeholder buy-in."

These familiar refrains reveal something crucial about professional services: We often use complexity as an excuse for inaction.

The truth? Most value destruction happens through known behaviors that could be stopped tomorrow if someone simply took ownership and acted.

Why It Hasn't Happened

The mystery isn't why these problems exist. The mystery is why they persist when the solutions are so straightforward.

The answer isn't about technical complexity. It's not about client resistance. It's not even about market constraints. It's simply about deliberate action - doing something that hasn't been done before, not because it's hard, but because it requires someone to finally say "This stops now."

The Deliberate Decision Framework

For leaders ready to move, the path forward is clear:

• Clear Ownership

  • Who takes responsibility for pricing decisions

  • What actions they'll own

  • How they'll lead by example

    
    

• Clear Rules

  • What stops now (e.g., undocumented investments)

  • What starts now (e.g., client acknowledgment)

  • What gets measured (e.g., total investment value)

• Clear Enforcement

  • How it's monitored (e.g., weekly investment tracking)

  • Who takes action (e.g., designated pricing authority)

  • When action happens (e.g., immediate upon violation)

• Clear Consequences

  • For compliance (e.g., recognition, compensation)

  • For violation (e.g., escalation, correction)

  • For results (e.g., value capture sharing)

The Path Forward

The window for voluntary transformation in professional services remains open. But that window isn't closing because of AI or market forces. It's closing because every day we tolerate obvious value destruction, we make it harder to change course.

This isn't necessarily about transformation. It's about deciding what you'll no longer tolerate, and acting on that decision today.

For leaders ready to move:

1. Pick your line (what practices will you no longer accept?)

2. Take ownership (what authority will you exercise?)

3. Act immediately (what stops today?)

4. Create accountability (how will you enforce it?)

As Sarah Martinez told me in our final conversation: "The money isn't hidden. It's sitting in plain sight, waiting for someone to finally say 'enough.'"

The question isn't whether you see the problem. The question is: What are you going to stop today?

Disclaimer: The stories and insights shared in this blog are based on my personal experiences and conversations throughout my career. While some content reflects recent events, they are drawn from a broad range of interactions with professionals across professional services, including friends and colleagues from various organizations, and do not specifically refer to or represent any single employer, past or present. Identities have been anonymized, and quotes may be paraphrased or combined for clarity and storytelling purposes. This blog is a personal endeavor and does not reflect the views or proprietary information of any employer.